I’ve been thinking about this also so I’m glad to see this post!
Anecdote: I’ve been talking to friends and family about COVID-19 since late January/February, and started my first attempts at social distancing towards the beginning of March. In these first few days, a lot of my (non-EA) friends seemed to think this response was an overreaction. Later on, a lot of them came around to say, “wow, you were right,” which I’ve tried to use to point some more credibility towards EA.
Some not-fully-formed ideas I have about this:
I think there’s an opportunity, once this begins to resolve, to hopefully get some media attention and say something along the lines of “there’s a community of people who were thinking about this before it happened, and who are thinking of other possible threats. Here’s how you can help.”
I also think that we might see an influx of young not-currently-EAs interested in helping address future pandemics, but I suspect a lot of them will be drawn to becoming doctors and nurses. So perhaps some publicity for these careers and/or a talent pipeline for biosecurity careers might be useful.
I’ve been thinking about this also so I’m glad to see this post!
Anecdote: I’ve been talking to friends and family about COVID-19 since late January/February, and started my first attempts at social distancing towards the beginning of March. In these first few days, a lot of my (non-EA) friends seemed to think this response was an overreaction. Later on, a lot of them came around to say, “wow, you were right,” which I’ve tried to use to point some more credibility towards EA.
Some not-fully-formed ideas I have about this:
I think there’s an opportunity, once this begins to resolve, to hopefully get some media attention and say something along the lines of “there’s a community of people who were thinking about this before it happened, and who are thinking of other possible threats. Here’s how you can help.”
I also think that we might see an influx of young not-currently-EAs interested in helping address future pandemics, but I suspect a lot of them will be drawn to becoming doctors and nurses. So perhaps some publicity for these careers and/or a talent pipeline for biosecurity careers might be useful.